


This Is What You (We) Were Made For

by BoisterousBattlecat



Series: FFVII Rare Pair Week 2020 [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: (I'm just being mean to him he's real but Seph doesn't know that), Angst, Big Brother!Kuja, Discussion of Hojo, FFVII Rare Pair Week 2020, Gen, Imaginary Friend!Kuja, Prompt Fic, ghost au, twelve-year-old is shipped off to war and he thinks that's normal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22762126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoisterousBattlecat/pseuds/BoisterousBattlecat
Summary: Twelve-year-old Sephiroth gets in some practice before his deployment to Wutai. His imaginary friend Kuja interrupts him.
Relationships: Kuja (Final Fantasy IX) & Sephiroth (Compilation of FFVII)
Series: FFVII Rare Pair Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636498
Kudos: 14
Collections: Final Fantasy VII Rare Pair Week





	This Is What You (We) Were Made For

**Author's Note:**

> I like. Literally just found out about [this](https://ffviirarepairweek.tumblr.com/post/190847708068/ffvii-rare-pair-week-2020) today. And like I wanted to write more and this seemed like the perfect opportunity, so I got to slamming out 500 words of angsty nonsense about my favorite crackship, though this instance is just Gen because it’d be pretty weird and uncomfortable otherwise.

Sephiroth is almost done working himself to exhaustion when his hallucination appears again.

Kuja clicks his tongue, arms crossed. “You’re going to hurt yourself.” His words snap Sephiroth’s attention to the heat in his body and the burning in his muscles. He wishes Kuja hadn’t said that; it’s going to take time before he can forget about his body’s complaints again.

Sephiroth exhales before he can fixate on it. “I need to meet my expectations.” He can’t now, though, now that Kuja —

“ _ Hojo’s  _ expectations, or has he so brainwashed you?” Kuja frowns the way he always does when he’s offended by the scientists. Sephiroth prefers the theatrical frown he wears when grumbling about things he doesn’t truly hate, but he sees that less and less often. “If Gaia gave me but a single morn of flesh I’d murder the man.”

“I told you not to talk about that,” Sephiroth says, because there’s no point obsessing about something as constant as gravity, “if you were real I’d want you by me.” His brain easily slips past seeing Kuja’s pale ephemeral figure, and whenever he tries to touch him he only feels a slight chill that Kuja compared to trying to capture mist.

That makes Kuja fall silent. “At least,” he says quietly, “you would have some distance from that disgrace to humanity.” He smiles almost imperceptibly, though it falls again soon. “Take up a hobby, mayhaps.” Sephiroth’s heard enough of Kuja’s backstory to know what he’s referring to.

“It’s a waste of productive time,” Sephiroth says. He tries to ignore the feeling of Hojo’s smugness.

Kuja  _ tsks _ . “It’s mankind’s soul.” Sephiroth knows not to protest that souls aren’t real. Kuja has always taken any insult against the fine arts as an invitation to talk, and he can’t afford to be distracted right now.

He raises his sword again and half-heartedly runs through some more katas. Kuja watches in the shadows, finally quiet. Then, he stumbles on a thrust he’s practiced a hundred times before. Logically, it’s a reasonable error, but it still makes him want to retch. Sephiroth draws in a shuddering breath and lets the sword drop. “Can’t you fight with me?” he pleads, irrationally afraid, he’s been told he’s unequaled, again and again until he ought to know it’s true. “You could cover me with your magic.” Kuja’s taught him, better than any of his instructors.

“If I could,” Kuja looks down at the ground, “but the Fates are cruel and I am dead.”

“I hate them,” Sephiroth says, before remembering to add a clarification for Shinra’s microphones, “the Fates.” He gives in to weariness and slumps down on the concrete training ground. “I want to kill them for giving me an illusion like you.”

“I know,” Kuja says, walking to him and then kneeling down, and Sephiroth wants to protest that he’s twelve now, he doesn’t need to be pampered, “I’ll be with you, alright? Trust in my genius to write a happy ending for us.”

He feels the chill of Kuja embracing him and tries to not let tears escape his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Some misc notes:
> 
>   * Because of Reasons (aka handwaves~) Kuja is basically living in Sephiroth’s mind. He fades in and out of consciousness. He pretty much only knows what he sees when he’s awake. Because of like magic nonsense he's capable of seeing things that Sephiroth can’t? Like he could go all “Look behind you!” and stuff with an enemy ninja or something.
>   * Kuja absolutely retold his favorite plays to baby Sephiroth as bedtime stories.
>   * Part of the reason for Sephiroth grows out his hair here (though his hair isn’t long right now cause he’s twelve) is to imitate Kuja, though he'd never admit it if you asked him.
>   * Kuja about Genesis: “I do _not_ look like that!” Which, yeah, they are kind of similar characters, ahahaha... 
>   * Hojo’s hobby is his job, which just goes to show more reasons why he’s a lucky bastard.
>   * I considered adding in a plot point about Kuja slowly fading away but I’m not that cruel to Sephiroth.
> 



End file.
